Monthly Archives: April 2014

It’s funny the things that stick with you from the old neighborhood. The things we miss and the traditions we carry on. For me, one of those things is Caffe Brasiliano, a cafeteria-coffee shop squeezed between Little Italy and Little Portugal on Dundas, west of Bathurst. The place is a family owned restaurant run by two brothers, Kenny and Brock, and a well-known spot to the locals, taking the place of the chains like Starbucks and Second Cup.

Inside are two counters, the first is a coffee bar with a barista ready to serve you a variety of drinks and types of coffee from all over the world. The second counter is a hot table, set up cafeteria-style, where you pick the foods you want and they carry it over to one of the tables for you. There’s a ubiquitous family attitude to the place, the cashier telling you to sit down and eat before worrying about payment, and often you’ll end up sharing one of the long tables with a fellow customer. Some days you can even find up to ten cabbies on break, crowded around a table, sipping a coffee, or munching on some hot food. In the summer they open up the garage-like windows at the front of the restaurant to let the breeze in and give the place an open concept feel. It’s cheap and the portions are more than adequate, but if you do have an insatiable hunger, you can go back and ask for a bit of a bigger helping free of charge. There’s a couple TV sets showing that day’s soccer game, a good conversation starter if you’re looking for someone to talk to.

I still take my daughter there on Saturday afternoons, and although I no longer live in the neighborhood, when I step through Caffe Brasiliano’s front door I feel like a local. They’re impeccable customer service is delivered effortlessly, with a casual feel and I always have a great experience whenever I stop by.

Just off of Highway 35-115, nestled amongst the outskirts of the bucolic town of Newcastle, is a small oasis. An oasis that the average driver would fly right passed, not even batting an eye. That’s because it’s a restaurant readily found—too readily, as some believe—across our country: McDonald’s. McDonald’s, that’s no oasis, you say. I can hear the sounds of your mouses drifting up towards the red x, but hear me out. We forget sometimes that just because a restaurant is part of a chain doesn’t mean they’re all the same.

One morning, a couple of weeks ago, I was driving up Highway 35-115, on my way to the ski slopes, at Brimacombe. It was early, I had my daughter with me, and neither of us had eaten yet, so when we saw those iconic yellow arches above the high snow banks. I pulled off the highway and into the drive-thru. We were the first customers in line, and we ordered an Egg McMuffin, a chocolate chip muffin, and a couple of drinks. The girl told us it would just take a minute to prepare the Egg McMuffin and if we were willing to pull up front they would bring the food to us. Well, I parked the car and waited…and waited…and waited. Finally, as our stomachs were beginning to audibly growl, the girl hurried out and handed us our food. Rather than the mechanical response of another business transaction, the girl apologized profusely, and mentioned that she had included a couple free hash browns, in the bag, as a form of reparation. Aside from the genuine apology, I was quite surprised by the added gesture. Not only were they sincerely sorry but they’d gone above the call of duty to fix the situation- a move only made by companies that swear by their excellent customer service.

An often overlooked aspect of the service industry is service recovery. A term referring to taking a customer’s hellish experience and turning it into a heavenly one. This doesn’t just mean apologizing to the customer but also providing them with something of value to ensure their continued business. In fact, a customer is more likely to return to your business following a service recovery situation, than after a normal transaction. There’s an old joke in the hotel business that if you want to hook a long-time customer it’s better to screw up the first time and then make it up to them.

Needless to say, the McDonald’s off of Highway 35-115 showed an excellent display of service recovery and certainly impressed me. If you’re ever in the area, I would definitely consider stopping by for a quick bite, and some great service.

The stress of deadlines and projects can take a real toll on you, both emotionally and physically. Then there’s the back, neck, and leg pain from sitting in that office chair all day. The simple solution? Get a massage.

MassageTime, a Toronto based company run by Eva Tettinger, offers reasonably priced, in-office massages to employees of a business, coupled with great customer service. Depending on the number of employees, companies can book the service for anywhere from three hours to an entire week. The masseuse brings their own portable massage chair for you to settle into and plays soothing background music while your stress is rubbed away. Each massage lasts 15-30 minutes and is performed through the employee’s clothing. Talk about awesome customer service and a great way to de-stress! If you’re looking for more, the company also offers personal massages at their clinic.

According to the Registered Massage Therapists’ Association of Ontario therapeutic massage provides a number of benefits, including reducing or eliminating pain, improving joint mobility, circulation and immune system functioning, reducing depression, anxiety and tension in muscles, and increasing lymphatic drainage. All of these benefits contribute to staff feeling revitalized and ready to work, and in my experience, Eva’s services are always well received by employees because of her amazing hands and even better customer service. Whether you have an office of 20 or 100 think about getting them a massage. They’ll appreciate it- trust me.
Eva TettingerMassageTime
416-485-2221massagetime@rogers.com

I’m certainly not the first to do it and I won’t be the last, but recently I dropped my Blackberry, cracking the screen. It still functioned, but peering through the fragmented glass to read an email wasn’t ideal, so I started to shop around to find somewhere that could fix it for a good price.

Most of the places I inquired at quoted me $80 to $100 for the repair, until I stumbled upon Stellar Cellular. The business is a small electronics store on College Street, squeezed between two pizza places. I called them on a Saturday and a guy named Richard answered. He told me they could fix it for $60, but would need to order some parts which wouldn’t arrive until Tuesday. Feeling bad, Richard suggested a couple of other stores I could go to if I needed it done right away. A business man willing to turn away business for the good of the customer! Richard was more worried about me than his own profit. I was so impressed with his level of customer service that I told him I’d be happy to wait until Tuesday.

So, come Tuesday, I make my way down to College Street, between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street, and there’s Richard waiting for me behind the counter. I hand over the phone, and he tells me to come back in about 45 minutes, while he does his magic….badda bing badda boom, my phone is good to go again. I thanked him, paid for the work, and headed off.

After I got back home, I noticed that there was something off with the screen, that was only visible with certain backgrounds. Since it was very distracting I had my dad take the phone back to Stellar Cellular and show Richard the problem. He took the phone again, promising to fix it, and gave it back to my dad, a short time later. When my dad brought me the phone, I opened the case, and snuggled up next to the Blackberry is $60 and a short note reading, “Deepest Apologies for the inconvenience. Your business is very important to me. Kind Regards, Richard”.

I would have been ecstatic just having the phone fixed, let alone having it fixed for free! For the second time, I didn’t feel like a just a piece of business, a sale, a profit, but a real person that Richard genuinely wanted to help. It’s refreshing to see a businesses that ensures that quality customer service is delivered to the customer- each and every time.

We are very excited to announce the launch of SQM Picks… a feature about the businesses that SQM has grown to know and love. Our President, David Lipton, has years of experience in a variety of industries, and is very passionate about customer service. He is always coming across great businesses, and he believes that they should get the credit that they deserve. SQM Picks will be posted every Wednesday, so be sure to keep an eye out for our latest picks and some of the President’s top recommendations.

Do you know of a business that deserves a standing ovation and a mention in SQM Picks? We’re always on the lookout for great businesses, and would love to hear about any that you feel should be featured in one of our articles. You can follow us and tweet us at @SQMInc, follow us and send us a message on Facebook at Sensors Quality Management – Mystery Shopping, or email us at sqm@sqm.ca

We hope that you enjoy what SQM Picks has to offer. What are you waiting for? Take your pick!